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Friday, December 21, 2012

Navy Bean and Refried Bean Stew Recipe with Ham, Leeks, and Tomatoes

This Phase One Navy Bean and Refried Bean Stew with Ham, Leeks, and Tomatoes would be a great use for leftover holiday ham.

(For Phase One Fridays I highlight Phase One recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites. If you're having ham during the holidays, this is a great phase one soup to make with the leftover ham. If you wanted to try this in the slow cooker, I would reduce the amount of ham stock to about 2 cups.)

When it's winter in Utah we often have a short little taste of warm weather, and then the lawn is covered with snow again and it seems like soup or stew is back on the menu. I created this recipe for a bean stew with leeks, ham, and tomatoes on a winter day when I was having guests for a soup and stew lunch. The recipe was partly inspired by an abundance of leeks and leftover ham, and the photo (which I was not crazy about) might have kept it from making an appearance on the blog, but when my nephew Jake and my brother Rand (two confirmed foodies) both raved about the flavors in this stew, I knew I should post it even if the photos didn't really show off its inner beauty.

The one thing that's most unusual about the recipe is the addition of a can of refried beans to thicken the stew, and I loved the flavor combination of pinto beans and navy beans here. Leeks are an ingredient I don't use often, so if you're put off by the idea of using them in this recipe, I'm sure you could just use more onion and skip the leeks. I also used a fancy Spanish sherry vinegar stirred in at the end, but any vinegar with a good flavor would work.

I cooked 2 cups of navy beans in the pressure cooker to get 4 cups of cooked navy beans, but you can also use 2 cans of navy beans, rinsed and drained. Any type of white beans will probably work.

Cut off the dark green ends of the leeks, then cut leeks in half lengthwise and cut into small slices.

Leeks can be gritty, so after I sliced them I rinsed the leeks well with cold water.

Start by sauteing the chopped onion and leeks in olive oil for about 3-4 minutes, or until they start to soften.

Add one can petite dice tomatoes, the cooked beans, diced ham, and 3 1/2 cups ham stock and let the mixture start to simmer. (If you don't have ham stock, I'd use chicken stock with a little bit of ham flavor base added.)

Mix the other 1/2 cup of ham stock with the refried beans.

Then stir the thinned refried beans into the stew and set at a low simmer. Season generously with fresh ground black pepper.

Simmer on low for an hour or two, or until the stew has thickened and flavors have blended to your liking. When you think the stew is ready, stir in 2 T Spanish Sherry vinegar (or other vinegar of your choice) and serve hot.

Navy Bean and Refried Bean Stew with Ham, Leeks, and Tomatoes
(Makes 6-8 servings; recipe created by Kalyn with inspiration from leftover ham in the fridge and a few leeks hanging out in the crisper.)

Instructions:
To get 4 cups cooked beans either start with 2 cups dried beans and cook in pressure cooker, soak 2 cups dried beans overnight and simmer in water until beans are soft, or use 2 cans navy beans, rinsed in cold water until no more foam appears. (Using canned beans will make the stew slightly thinner because 2 cans beans is slightly less than 4 cups cooked beans.)

Dice the onion into pieces smaller than 1/2 inch. Cut off dark green ends of the leeks, cut in half lengthwise, then slice the leeks into thin half slices. Put leeks in salad spinner or small colander and rinse well with cold water and spin dry or let drain.

Add diced tomatoes and juice, cooked beans, diced ham, and 3 1/2 cups of the ham stock and let mixture come to a simmer. Mix the remaining 1/2 cup ham stock with the can of refried beans, then stir into the stew.

Season generously with fresh ground black pepper and let the mixture simmer on low for 1-2 hours, or until the stew has thickened and flavors have blended to your liking. Stir in 2 T Spanish sherry vinegar (or any vinegar you like the flavor of) and serve hot.

South Beach Suggestions:
If making this for the South Beach Diet, it's important to use lean ham. Otherwise, everything in this recipe is a low-glycemic ingredient, making it a great option for all phases of the diet.

Nutritional Information?

I chose the South Beach Diet to manage my weight partly so I wouldn't have to count calories, carbs, points, or fat grams, but if you want nutritional information for a recipe, I recommend entering the recipe into Calorie Count, which will calculate it for you.

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Posts may include links to my affiliate account at Amazon.com, and this blog earns a few cents on the dollar if readers purchase the items I recommend, so thanks for supporting my blog when you shop at Amazon!

29 comments:

This looks too good to pass up, so I'm going to try it with smoked turkey instead of the ham. Or maybe sausage. Or maybe leaving out the ham and not substituting. I think any of those variations would be delicious. (And I think the photos are great.)

What a great idea to use refried beans to thicken the stew! I recently used a can of creamed corn to thicken a chicken & corn soup, which I'd imagine works similarly to the canned beans. I think your photos look great!

Just wanted to let you know that I made this recipe today and it was wonderful! This was my first time cooking with leeks. Your picture instructions on cutting leeks was very helpful. I used canned Northern Beans, diced ham and all the other ingredients as listed. Loved the ease of putting it all together and will be making this again. Love your site.

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